How to get a copy of your hotel receipt or folio

Three nights at a conference hotel, booked on a travel site because it was $20 cheaper. You paid the room up front, then parking and two breakfasts at the desk on the way out. A week later the expense system sends the claim back. The booking email you attached isn't enough. It wants an itemised hotel receipt.

What it wants is the folio, the hotel's own itemised bill, issued at check-out. You get it from the hotel, not from the website you booked on. At Hilton and Marriott you can often download it from your account. Everywhere else, and for anything older, you ask the hotel or the chain's customer care. If you booked through Booking.com, Expedia or Airbnb, the site can give you a receipt for what you paid it. The itemised bill still comes from the property.

The catch is that the window is short and rarely written down. Of the seven hotel chains we read, only Hilton says how far back its online receipts go, and its answer is 12 months.

We read the help pages each chain and booking site publishes about itself, on 24 October 2026. Nothing below comes from a travel forum or someone else's roundup. Where a page didn't say, or wouldn't load for us, we say so.

This article is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Hotels and booking sites change their help pages and their time limits without notice. Check the current page before you rely on a deadline given here.

The short version

• The document you need is the folio. It's the hotel's itemised bill, with the room, taxes and everything charged to the room shown separately. Hotels call it a receipt, a folio, a hotel bill or an invoice. It's the same thing.
• A booking confirmation isn't a receipt. It's a promise of a price. An expense approver, and the IRS, want what you were charged.
• Try your account first. Hilton puts receipts for the past 12 months under Your Stays. Marriott has a folio download "if available" under My Trips. IHG sends members to their Stays.
• Otherwise, ask the hotel. Wyndham says receipts "are only available from the property". Hilton sends non-members to the hotel too.
• Use the request forms. Marriott, IHG, Hyatt and Choice each have an online route for asking for a copy of a past bill.
• Booked on a travel site? Expect two documents. Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb give you proof of what you paid them. The itemised invoice comes from the property, and so does the bill for anything you paid at the desk.
• For US taxes, lodging gets no small-expense pass. The IRS waives receipts for most expenses under $75. Lodging is the exception.

Folio, receipt or booking confirmation: which one do you need?

You need the folio. A hotel folio is the hotel's itemised bill for your stay, and it's the only one of these documents that shows what the hotel charged you, line by line, after you checked out. Four documents get mixed up on a hotel stay, and an expense system usually accepts only that one.

A booking confirmation is the email you get when you reserve. It shows a rate, an estimated total and a confirmation number. It's written before you've stayed a night.

A folio is the bill the hotel closes at check-out. Hilton uses the words side by side, offering "a copy of your receipt or folio". Marriott calls it the Hotel Bill. It lists each night's room rate, the taxes on it, and anything else charged to the room, such as parking, meals or a resort fee.

A booking receipt is what a travel site gives you when it took the payment. Expedia Group's documentation for travel companies draws the line clearly: "Invoices are legally compliant formal documents usually issued by a tax-registered seller at time of check-out for lodging bookings. Booking receipts are proof of payment that can be issued any time post-payment."

A card statement line proves you paid someone, and how much.

Document	Who issues it	When	What it shows	Enough for an expense claim?
Booking confirmation	Hotel or booking site	When you book	The rate and an estimated total	No, it's an estimate
Booking receipt	Booking site, when it took the payment	After you pay	What you paid the site	Sometimes, for the room alone
Folio or invoice	The hotel	At check-out	Each night, each tax and each extra charge	Yes
Card statement line	Your bank	When the charge posts	That you paid, and how much	Rarely, see below

For an expense claim or a tax record, it's the third row you want.

Why does the folio matter more than other receipts?

Because lodging is the one expense the IRS won't let you prove with a log alone. Most business expenses under $75 need no receipt at all. IRS Publication 463 waives documentary evidence where "your expense, other than lodging, is less than $75". The words "other than lodging" mean a hotel night needs a receipt whatever it cost.

The same publication says what the receipt has to show. A hotel receipt "is enough to support expenses for business travel" if it has three things:

1. "The name and location of the hotel."
2. "The dates you stayed there."
3. "Separate amounts for charges such as lodging, meals, and telephone calls."

That third line is where booking receipts fall short. A booking site's receipt can show the room and the taxes it collected. It can't show the parking and breakfast you paid at the desk, because the site never saw them. Only the hotel's folio has every charge, separated.

There's one exception. If your employer pays you a per diem allowance that covers lodging, under what the IRS calls an accountable plan, the publication says documentary evidence isn't needed for those costs. Your employer's own policy can still ask for the folio, and most do.

How do you get a receipt from each hotel chain?

Sign in to the chain's website or app and look in your past stays. Hilton and Marriott offer a download there, and IHG points members to the same place. If the stay isn't in your account, use the chain's request form or ask the hotel directly. Wyndham doesn't handle receipts centrally at all.

Each row below sums up what the chain's own page says. "Not stated" means the page we read doesn't say. It doesn't mean there's no limit.

Chain	Where to look online	How far back	If it isn't there
Hilton	Your Stays, Previous stays, View Receipt	12 months	Contact the hotel
Marriott	My Trips, Activity tab, folio download "if available"	Not stated	Contact form for a past Hotel Bill
IHG	"For hotel bills, review your Stays."	Not stated	Customer care form, "Request a hotel bill"
Hyatt	Retrieve Hotel Bill page	Not stated	We couldn't load the page
Wyndham	None	Not stated	"Only available from the property"
Choice	None found	Not stated	Customer service form, "Request recent receipt"
Accor	Emailed after fast check-out	Not stated	Not stated

Count across the seven and a pattern shows:

Across the seven chains we read	Count
Offer a receipt or folio in the member account	3 of 7
Say how long receipts stay available online	1 of 7
Have an online form for requesting a past bill	4 of 7
Send you to the hotel itself, for some or all requests	2 of 7

That's our count, and it's the article in four lines. The chain can usually help, but only one says for how long. If the stay is more than a few months old, assume the online copy may be gone and ask the hotel.

Hilton

Hilton's help article is the clearest of the seven. "If you need a copy of your receipt or folio for a past stay up to 12 months, you can easily access it through your Hilton account or the Hilton Honors mobile app."

On the website, sign in, choose Your Stays, tick the Previous stays filter and select View Receipt. In the app, the route is Account, then Stay history, then View receipt. If the receipt isn't there, or you aren't a Hilton Honors member, the instruction is short: "Contact the hotel directly for further assistance."

Marriott

Marriott keeps past stays under My Trips, on the Activity tab. Its help page says "downloading a folio (if available)" happens there too. That "if available" matters. When there's no download, Marriott sends you to its contact page "to request a copy of a past Hotel Bill (not available on the website)".

A stay can be missing from the list altogether. Marriott says that happens when your member number wasn't attached to the reservation, and its points rules exclude "Stays booked through third-party websites (e.g., Expedia, Priceline, etc.)". If you booked that way, the hotel itself is the likelier source.

If the folio is wrong, Marriott's advice is to "call the property and ask to speak with the Accounting Department", or use its contact form and "allow up to 5 Business Days" for a reply. Once a charge is corrected, it says: "Always ask for an updated copy of your Hotel Bill once the correction has been made."

IHG: Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and InterContinental

IHG's customer care page lists "Request a hotel bill" as an option, and the form page behind it says: "For hotel bills, review your Stays." That's the My stays section of your IHG One Rewards account.

The same page has a line for anyone who booked elsewhere: "For bookings made through a 3rd party, visit their website for customer support." IHG's digital checkout, available at select hotels, also lets you review your bill in the app or the checkout email before you leave.

Hyatt

Hyatt has a dedicated page called Retrieve Hotel Bill, at hyatt.com/contact-hyatt/retrieve-hotel-bill. We couldn't read it. From our connection, Hyatt's site returned an error page each time we tried, so we can't tell you what the form asks for or how far back it goes. If the form fails for you too, ask the hotel where you stayed.

Wyndham

Wyndham, which runs Days Inn, Super 8, La Quinta and Ramada among others, is direct about it. Its About My Stay page says: "Receipts and billing information, including credit card details, are only available from the property. Please contact the property directly for further assistance." Call or email the hotel, with your confirmation number and the dates of your stay.

Choice Hotels

Choice, which runs Comfort, Quality Inn and Econo Lodge, has no receipt download that we could find. Its customer service form has a topic for exactly this, labelled "Request recent receipt". The form doesn't say what counts as recent. For an older stay, contact the hotel as well.

Accor

Accor, the group behind Novotel, ibis, Sofitel and Pullman, emails the invoice. Its fast check-out page says "Your invoice will then be sent by e-mail" once you hand back your key. The page also says the service "will become gradually available in most of our hotels", so not every Accor hotel offers it. If the email never arrives, ask the hotel's front desk before you leave.

Booked through Booking.com, Expedia or Airbnb?

Then you'll usually have two documents. The booking site can show what you paid it, and the property issues the invoice. Each of the three says so on its own pages.

Booking.com

Booking.com doesn't issue hotel invoices. Its business help centre says "Invoices are always provided by the property", and its guide for hotels is blunter still. Because each reservation is an agreement between the guest and the property, "it's your responsibility to provide the guest with an invoice – not Booking.com. This is regardless of who handled the payment."

The guide tells properties: "You need to provide a guest invoice at check-out, in line with your local legal requirements." So ask for it at the desk. If you didn't, the business help centre describes the route for Booking.com for Business accounts: find the stay under Bookings & trips, select "Request invoice" and message the property.

One tip from the same page. When you search, look for the Easy invoice label. Booking.com says it "alerts you to properties that are reliable for providing tax invoices".

Expedia

Expedia's documentation shows which document comes from whom, and it depends on who took your money.

You paid	Receipt for the room comes from	Itemised invoice comes from
The hotel, at the property	The hotel	The hotel
Expedia, when you booked	Expedia	The hotel, which may or may not issue one

When the hotel collects payment, the property "delivers a booking receipt for booking amount and onsite charges". When Expedia collects it, Expedia provides a receipt for the booking amount, and the property "delivers booking receipt for onsite charges". For one of Expedia's prepaid models, the hotel "may issue a tax invoice for their services at their discretion, as they are not obligated to do so in many jurisdictions."

In plain terms: the Expedia receipt covers the room you prepaid. Anything you paid at the desk is on the hotel's receipt, and if you need one itemised bill for the whole stay, ask the hotel for the folio at check-out.

Airbnb

Airbnb's receipt is in your account. Its help centre says: "Need a receipt from a past trip? No problem." Open Trips, choose the stay under Past trips, select Your stay, and under Payment info select Get receipt.

Watch for one thing if you need a VAT invoice. Airbnb's VAT invoice covers its own fee, not the stay: one is provided "whenever VAT is assessed on Airbnb service fees". It also says "Airbnb is not able to modify a VAT invoice after it's been issued", so add your company's name and address to your account before you book. In Brazil it goes further: "Airbnb will not issue any invoice regarding the total value of the accommodation." For a tax invoice for the stay itself, ask the host.

What if the receipt isn't in your account?

Usually the stay was booked another way, or it's older than the account shows. Work through these in order. It's the same first move as in our guide to what to do when you lose a receipt: go back to whoever charged you.

1. Search your inbox. Many hotels email the folio at check-out, and Accor's fast check-out sends the invoice by email after departure.
2. Check how you booked. A stay booked through a travel site may not appear in the chain's account at all. IHG sends those guests to the site they booked with.
3. Check whose name it's under. If a colleague or a travel desk made the booking, the folio may sit in their account.
4. Use the chain's form. Marriott, IHG and Choice each have one, and Hyatt has a bill retrieval page.
5. Call the hotel itself. Ask for the front desk or accounts, give the confirmation number and the dates, and ask them to email the folio as a PDF.
6. Ask for a corrected copy if anything's wrong. Marriott's advice is to request an updated bill once a charge is fixed, so the copy you file matches your card.

Why doesn't the folio match what you paid when you booked?

Because the booking price is the room and its taxes, and the folio is the whole stay. The folio adds whatever you charged to the room, and it can show charges the booking site's price didn't include.

Put numbers on it. Say you prepaid $540 for three nights on a travel site. At check-out the hotel adds three nights of parking and two breakfasts, and you pay those at the desk. Your card now shows two charges, one from the site and one from the hotel. The site's receipt matches the first. Only the hotel's folio explains the second.

There's also a hold that isn't a charge at all. Hotels often place a deposit on your card at check-in. Marriott says these holds "are released by the hotel upon check-out", but that "it may take 7–14 days for a security deposit to be released or for a refund to appear on your statement". If your statement shows more than the folio, a hold that hasn't dropped off yet is the usual reason.

Is a booking confirmation or card statement enough?

Rarely, and less often for a hotel than for anything else. A card statement shows the amount, a date and a name. It doesn't show the dates of the stay or which part was the room and which part was dinner.

Your employer sets its own rule. Most expense policies want the itemised folio for lodging, even when they accept a statement line for a small meal. Our guide to a lost receipt on an expense claim covers what finance teams usually take when a receipt really can't be found.

For US federal tax, a statement alone is weak evidence for a hotel. The $75 exception doesn't cover lodging, and Publication 463 says "a canceled check by itself doesn't prove a business expense without other evidence to show that it was for a business purpose". If the folio truly can't be had, our guide to lost receipts for taxes sets out what the IRS accepts in its place.

Once you have the PDF, save it where you'll find it. A folio that supports a deduction is worth keeping for at least three years, and our guide to how long to keep receipts explains why.

When not to use a rebuilt receipt

We make receipt templates, including hotel layouts in the style of JW Marriott and Wyndham, so we'll be direct about this.

It isn't what's being asked for. An expense approver or a tax examiner wants the hotel's record of your stay. A document you drew up yourself isn't that, however accurate the figures are.

It can be checked. A real folio carries a confirmation or folio number, and the hotel can confirm it. Hotels keep the record. A made-up folio has nothing behind it.

It's fraud. Handing in a receipt you made as though the hotel issued it is fraud in most places, even when the stay was real and the amount is right. Our terms prohibit using Repceipt to submit a false expense to an employer or to support a tax deduction.

You don't need it. The hotel has the folio, and most will email it the same day you ask.

A rebuilt copy has one honest use: your own files. If you keep a travel journal or a household budget and want a tidy record of a stay whose bill you no longer have, that's what the templates are for. It's for your records and nobody else's.

How we checked

We opened each chain's own help pages, and the guest and partner help pages of each booking site, on 24 October 2026. We read every statement about where a receipt is kept, how to ask for one and how long it stays available. The wording above comes from those pages.

The seven chains are Hilton, Marriott, IHG, Hyatt, Wyndham, Choice and Accor, seven of the largest hotel groups a US traveller is likely to book. For Booking.com and Expedia, the clearest statements are in pages written for hotels and travel companies rather than guests. We've quoted those because they say plainly who issues which document, and said so where we do.

One limit matters more than the others. We didn't stay at these hotels to test the forms. This is a reading of what each company publishes, not a test of whether its form finds your stay.

What we could not verify

• Hyatt's Retrieve Hotel Bill page. Hyatt's site returned an error page to every request we made, so we can't describe the form or its time limit.
• Best Western. Its customer service pages refused our requests, so it isn't in the table. Treat the hotel itself as the place to ask.
• How long Marriott, IHG, Choice and Accor keep receipts online. None of the pages we read gives a number. Choice's form says "recent" and doesn't define it.
• Independent and franchise hotels. Many branded hotels are run by franchisees. The chain's page describes the chain's systems. Your hotel's own accounts office may keep records longer, or for less time.
• Whether a copy ever costs money. None of the pages we read mentions a fee for a copy of a folio.
• Outside the US. Rules on what an invoice must show, and who must issue it, differ by country. Booking.com's guide tells hotels to follow "local legal requirements", which is the honest summary.

Common questions

What is a hotel folio?

A hotel folio is the hotel's itemised bill for your stay. It lists each night's room rate, the taxes on it, and everything else charged to your room, such as parking, meals or a resort fee. Hotels also call it a receipt, a hotel bill or an invoice. It's closed at check-out, and it's the document an expense system usually asks for.

How do I get a copy of my hotel receipt?

Sign in to the hotel chain's account and look in your past stays. Hilton keeps receipts there for 12 months, and Marriott offers a folio download where one is available. If it isn't there, use the chain's request form or ask the hotel directly, giving your confirmation number and the dates you stayed.

How do I get an itemised receipt if I booked on Expedia or Booking.com?

Ask the hotel. Booking.com says invoices "are always provided by the property", and Expedia's documentation says the property issues the receipt for anything you paid on site. The booking site can give you a receipt for what you paid it, which covers the room but not the extras.

How long do hotels keep receipts?

Most chains don't say. Hilton is the only one of the seven we read that gives a number: receipts for the past 12 months are in your Hilton account. For older stays, ask the hotel, which keeps its own accounting records.

Is a booking confirmation the same as a hotel receipt?

No. A booking confirmation shows the rate and an estimated total before you stay. A hotel receipt, or folio, shows what you were charged after check-out, including taxes and extras. An expense approver or the IRS wants the receipt.

Do I need a hotel receipt for taxes if the stay cost under $75?

Yes, for US federal tax. IRS Publication 463 lets you skip documentary evidence for most expenses under $75, but the rule says "other than lodging". A hotel stay needs a receipt showing the hotel's name and location, the dates and separate amounts for each kind of charge, unless your employer pays you a per diem that covers lodging.

Can I get a hotel receipt without an account?

Usually, yes. Hilton tells non-members to contact the hotel directly, and Wyndham handles all receipts at the property. The hotel can email the folio if you give it the confirmation number and the dates of your stay.

Corrections and updates

Pages last read on 24 October 2026. No corrections have been made since.

Hotels and booking sites change these pages without notice. If one here is out of date, tell us and we'll update it and give the new date.

Sources

Read on 24 October 2026.

• Hilton: How to get a copy of your stay receipt
• Marriott: How Do I Find Past Reservations in My Account?, What Do I Do if I Have a Billing Issue? and How Do I Request Credit for a Completed Missing Stay?
• IHG: Customer Care, Submit a form and Digital Check-In & Checkout
• Hyatt: Retrieve Hotel Bill, which did not load for us
• Wyndham: About My Stay
• Choice Hotels: Contact Customer Service
• Accor: Online check-in and fast check-out
• Booking.com: How can I get my invoice? (Booking.com for Business) and Do I supply guests with invoices? (Booking.com for Partners)
• Expedia Group: Invoices and booking receipts, Rapid API documentation
• Airbnb: Finding receipts from past trips, Locating your VAT invoice and Brazil receipts and invoices
• Internal Revenue Service: Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses, chapter 5, for the $75 rule and what a hotel receipt must show

Related

• How to get a copy of your rental car receipt
• Lost receipt for an expense claim: what to do
• Lost receipts for taxes: what the IRS accepts